Action Research and Sociometry

In my exploration of Moreno’s ideas on Methodology I have come across Action Research. Kurt Lewin’s name comes up again. I recall he had something else that was *like* Moreno, but not quite? Yes, Force Field analysis, (see next post). I wonder how connected it all is, and how useful? Or if it is important to see the specific Moreno aspects that might be overlooked? I imagine the ideas of wap and Maximum Voluntary participation might not be present. Will check out, and would be interested in comments from people who know!

Action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a “community of practice” to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. Action research can also be undertaken by larger organizations or institutions, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice.

Kurt Lewin, then a professor at MIT, first coined the term “action research” in about 1944, and it appears in his 1946 paper “Action Research and Minority Problems”. In that paper, he described action research as “a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action” that uses “a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action”.

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ERIC #:
A unique accession number assigned to each record in the database; also referred to as ERIC Document Number (ED Number) and ERIC Journal Number (EJ Number). EJ681179
Title:
The name assigned to the document by the author. This field may also contain sub-titles, series names, and report numbers. Action Research: A Contradiction in Terms?
Authors:
Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name. Hammersley, Martyn
Descriptors:
Terms from the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors; used to tag materials by subject to aid information search and retrieval. Click on a Descriptor to initiate any new search using that term. Research Methodology; Inquiry; Action Research; Educational Research; Greek Civilization
Source:
The entity from which ERIC acquires the content, including journal, organization, and conference names, or by means of online submission from the author. Oxford Review of Education, v30 n2 p165-181 Jun 2004
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An indication of whether the document came from a peer-reviewed journal or U.S. Department of Education publication. Note: Used from 2005 onward. More Info:
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Publication Date:
The date the document or article was published. 2004-06-01
Pages:
The total number of pages including all front-matter. 18
Pub Types:
The type of document (e.g., report) or publication medium. Journal Articles; Reports – Research
Abstract:
A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. The core idea of action research is that there should be an intimate relationship between inquiry and practical or political activities. A challenge to this idea based on an influential ancient Greek hierarchy between theoria and praxis is examined. The contrary, pragmatist, notion that all inquiry arises out of human activity is accepted, but not the instrumentalism sometimes derived from it. Research must be treated as operating on the same plane as any other activity, but the relationship between the two will always be less than isomorphic, and this creates the prospect of severe tensions. These can be managed contextually in two ways: by subordinating inquiry, or by making it primary. Both are legitimate, but any attempt to treat the two components of action research as equal faces contradiction.
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Reference Count:
The number of bibliographic references included in the indexed item. 64